Manuscripts holdings is one of the world's richest collections of written landmarks of national and world culture from ancient Egyptian papyri to autographs of our contemporaries. The manuscripts held by the National Library of Russia comprise of over 1400 private archives and collections that today number more than 450 000 valuable items for all periods and countries.

The library's stock of rare books contains more than 70 000 volumes. An appreciable portion of those are incunabula (books printed before 1501): about 7 000 works. The library has no rival for its stock of early Russian printed books and Slavonic incunabula, it also holds a large amount of West European publications from the 16th and 17th century. The most remarkable among collections are Aldine editions of the 15th - 16th centuries and Elseviers produced by the celebrated 17th/century Dutch family firm. The Rare Books Department can boast Voltaire's Library, the unique monument of 18th century culture, that is one of some well surviving private libraries of that time.

The National Library's collection of printed maps and atlases is the second largest in the country, comprising more than 180,000 items printed in Russia and abroad from the sixteenth century to the present. It incudes maps, atlases, reproductions of manuscripts, globes, electronic cartographic publications.

A unique photographic collection of the Prints Department is a true chronicle of the life of Russia since the second half of the 19th . It includes portraits from the 1850s, photographic views of cities and other places since the 1850s, photos on various subjects from the 1860s, photographic reproductions of works of art.

The military regulations, presented in poetic form, was written by George Hager in Nuremberg in 1600, as stated on the title sheet. At the end of the manuscript, there are placed several poems of George Hager and is specified his main profession - a shoemaker from Nuremberg. It is known that, in addition to the craft, he was a Mastersinger and composed music and poetry. The military regulations are based on treatises on the art of war, published in the 16th century. In rhymed verses, the book represents the army structure from soldiers – gunners, infantrymen, quartermasters, and so on to the commanders. The descriptions of the German army ranks are illustrated by engravings from the late 16th century edition, painted by hand. The printed text of the military regulations by George Hager has not been detected.

It is possible that the binding of the manuscript is re-used from an earlier period or it carries an early stamp: the «white» date – 1571.

The manuscript contains a poetic version of the story of Emperor Charlemagne. The work was written by the French historian and poet Guillaume Crétin in the early 16th century by order of King Francis I. It has remained unpublished to the present day, and has survived only in manuscript form.

It is a collection of poems by the 15th century Italian poets, including Serdini, Sangvinachchi, Kavalkabo and others, as well as sonnets and canzones (ballads) by unknown authors, wrote "on the occasion". The book opens with a short prose story about a tragic love of the legendary Babylonian pair of Pyramus and Thisbe. The story about the tragic death of the lovers has been known since antiquity: it was used in Ovid's "Metamorphosis", in poem by the Greek epic poet Nonnus of Panopolis. The famous Shakespearean tragedy of Romeo and Juliet as well as a number of literary and musical works also borrow from this story dating back to antiquity.

The collection contains poems of Polish writers and scholars who belonged to the Jesuits. The elegy by the poet Wojciech Ines (1619-1658) is dedicated to the famous Spanish Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier (1506-1552), called the apostle of India and canonized by the Catholic Church.
The author of the «Centuries» Alexander Lorencowicz (1609–1675) – a Polish Jesuit, Rector of Jesuit colleges in Lviv and in Jaroslaw (Galicia). The poem «Sarmatian Lighthouse», published in Cracow in 1633, was written by the historian and heraldist Bartholomew Paprocki (ca 1543–1614). Judging by the modest decoration of the manuscript, the poetic works were copied into the collection from publications of 1633–1652 for the personal use of the owner.

The poetry collection contains short poems, epigrams and dedications, composed in the Bialska Academy and addressed to its teachers. The Academy was founded in 1628 in the small Polish town of Biala Podlaska. The town was greatly developed in the late 16th century, when the Radziwill family settled and built a castle there. The Academy was the third largest institution of higher education in Poland and was considered a branch of the Krakow Academy. The children of the Polish gentry were taught in it. The Academy had a theological and philosophical faculties where students studied for 3 years; two year rhetoric courses; courses of poetry and grammar. Lectures were conducted in Polish and Latin. The Academy lasted less than a century, gradually declining and losing its prestige. The Academy building has survived to the present day, and now it is a secondary school.